Southern California -- this just in

Gun-toting investigators raid Venice raw foods grocery

Investigators recently entered an
organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers
to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from
the nuts.

Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across
Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under
crates of zucchini, they found the raid's target inside a walk-in
refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk.

"I still can't believe
they took our yogurt," said Rawesome volunteer Sea J. Jones, a few days
after the raid. "There's a medical marijuana shop a couple miles away,
and they're raiding us because we're selling raw dairy products?"

Cartons
of raw goat and cow milk and blocks of unpasteurized goat cheese were
among the groceries seized in the June 30 raid by federal, state and
local authorities — the latest salvo in the heated food fight over what
people can put in their mouths.

Photo: Ebrahim Rafatjah stands in the walk-in cooler full of unpasteurized
dairy products. On the other side are Ziploc bags of raw chicken, beef
and pork, many without expiration dates. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times